The Saraiki people (Perso-Arabic:
سرائيکی, Gurmukhi: ਸਰਾਇਕੀ) or Multani people (Perso-Arabic: ملتانی,
Devanagari: मुल्तानी, Gurmukhi: ਮੁਲਤਾਨੀ) are an ethnic group from
the south-eastern areas of Pakistan, especially in the area of the
former princely state of Bahawalpur and the districts of Sukkur,
Larkana, Dadu, Sehwan, Sanghar, Nawabshah, Hyderabad, Sindh,
Mirpurkhas, Multan, Rajanpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, MuzafarGarh, Layyah,
Bhakkar, Mianwali, Dera Ismail Khan, Karachi. A significant number
of Saraikis also reside in India, with most concentrated in the
state of Punjab, Maharashtra and Gujarat.[1] The Saraikis maintain
that they have a separate language and culture, but their language
is often viewed as a dialect of Sindhi or Punjabi. While the
majority of Saraikis follow Islam, a few also follow Hinduism and
Sikhism.

History

At the time of independence of Pakistan in 1947, Muslims constituted
between 90 to 75% of the population of Saraiki speaking region of
West Pakistan. While the Hindus and Sikhs constituted between 10 and
25% of the population of the regions in West Punjab, nearly all
Hindus and Sikhs migrated to India in 1947, while a substantial
number remigrated later to the United Kingdom from India, among
other countries. The Muslims of East Punjab were also around 45%,
nearly all migrated to Pakistani and Saraiki areas. Sindh also had
Hindus and Sikhs population of 25% at time of independence of West
Pakistan, most of them migrated to India, many of them remigrated
from India to the other parts of the world.

A Saraiki campaign (struggle) grew in the 1960s with the aims of
establishing language rights and stopping what was seen as
exploitation and repression by the traditionally Punjabi dominated
government. Saraiki land has always been very fertile, producing
much of Pakistan's wheat and cotton. However little money has been
re-invested, and this has led to impoverishment and
underdevelopment. The current Prime Minister of Pakistan, Yousuf
Raza Gilani, is Saraiki native, and has initiated several projects
to uplift the region particularly in and around Multan.

The campaign continued on into the 1970s, by which time political
activists had drawn up a map of a proposed new province to be carved
out of central Pakistan named Saraikistan[citation needed],
including most of southern Punjab and Dera Ismail Khan in the
North-West Frontier Province (this excluded Sindhi and Baloch areas,
possibly because of strong nationalist movements in those regions).
The movement, however, was not an independence movement, but rather
a movement for the establishment of a separate province within
Pakistan.

In 1977 General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq took power in a coup of
Pakistan. Under his strongly centralist rule the Saraiki movement
went underground. The death of General Zia in a plane crash in 1988
gave the impetus for the Saraiki movement to re-emerge. By now the
aims were to have a Saraiki nationality recognised, to have official
documents printed in Saraiki, a Saraiki regiment in the army,
employment quotas and more Saraiki language radio and television
(recently one channel is working).

In 1993 moves were made to settle Biharis in Saraiki areas. This was
resisted violently by the Saraikis and the plan was eventually
shelved